Archive for the ‘Kurikulum Standard Sekolah Rendah (KSSR)’ Category

PUTRAJAYA: The new Primary School Standard Curriculum (Kurikulum Standard Sekolah Rendah) or KSSR will empower students as well as the teachers and enrich them with the capabilities to increase their thinking and give them more room and freedom to exercise their creativity.

The Education Ministry’s Curriculum Development Department deputy director Dr Azian T. S. Abdullah said it would cater to all students and give them a chance to explore their abilities, especially those with special needs.

“For those that could not cope with the curriculum then we give separate teaching classes with different methods, that can encourage them to be independent.

“The curriculum also pays attention to special needs kids, as well as Orang Asli and Penan students,” she said.

She said they must make school a fun place for the Orang Asli pupils, as their learning capabilities and ways are different from other students.

She said they have to find ways to attract them to come to school, and increase the number of school-going children from among the Orang Asli and Penan people.

“For children who are talented and gifted, the curriculum allow for them to be fast-tracked, and lessen the period of time for school — to five years instead of six in primary, and four years instead of five in secondary school,” she said.

The KSSR, said Azian, will also be reviewed each year, to make room for improvements and to fall in line with the objectives in the National Education Blueprint.

KSSR was first established in 2011 for Year One pupils, which saw some subjects combined, and new ones created with themes on nationhood and patriotism.

The learning and content standards that are outlined in KSSR were specifically aimed towards ensuring pupils acquire basic literacy skills by the end of Year Three, and was also in line with the second National Key Result Areas (NKRA) for the ministry —to ensure all primary school pupils have basic literacy skills after three years of formal schooling.

KSSR will be implemented fully in 2016 where Year Six students will no longer be evaluated based on their Ujian Penilaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) results, but from their overall performance and classroom participation.

Azian said in four years time, schoolchildren will have the option of choosing a range of international languages to learn from, as the ministry is looking to implement a new syllabus under KSSR.The new curriculum seeks to introduce new subjects such as languages including Iban, Kadazan, Spanish and Arabic by 2017 in all schools nationwide.

THE national curriculum will be benchmarked to international standards to produce students with the skills required to compete at an international level.

Both the primary and secondary school curricula will address the intellectual, spiritual, emotional, and physical dimensions of each student.

It will emphasise the application of knowledge and the development of critical, creative, and innovative thinking skills.

In its first three years, redesigning the curriculum will include benchmarking its learning and content standards against that of high-performing systems.

This is to ensure that these standards are aligned and that the syllabuses are not “overcrowded”– where the breadth and depth of content covered in the curriculum is more than can be effectively taught in a given school year.

Additionally, the government will engage independent, international experts to validate the results of this benchmarking exercise for English, Science and Mathematics.

The proportion of questions in both school-based assessments and the national examinations that test higher-order thinking will be increased in the next three years.

These questions will test skills such as applying, analysing, evaluating, and creating. By 2016, questions that test these skills will make up 80 per cent of Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah questions, 80 per cent of the Form 3 central assessment, three-quarters of the questions for Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia core subjects and half of the questions for SPM elective subjects.

Support for teachers will be strengthened to ensure the written curriculum is accurately translated into classroom teaching through better teaching resources and an expanded School Improvement Specialist Coach (SISC+) role.

The government will also introduce Literacy and Numeracy Screening (LINUS) 2.0 with an expanded scope to address English literacy. The Ministry will also pilot the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme for secondary school students in 10 schools, starting next year.

PUTRAJAYA: The newly- implemented Primary School Standard Curriculum (KSSR) has received positive feedback from teachers and parents, in that it has increased interest among students to learn English.

Education Deputy Director-General (Policy) Prof Dr Khair Mohamad Yusof said this was because the KSSR approach was no longer the ‘chalk and talk’ method, but focused on a more fun way of learning English.

“KSSR not only emphasises on language proficiency, but also communication among the students. It also uses other methods such as games and music,” he said.

He was speaking to reporters after receiving a group of superbike riding teachers from Selangor, who were participating in the 1Malaysia Motor Convoy from Shah Alam to the education ministry here today.

Khair said the KSSR, which was only introduced to Year 1 primary students this year, would be implemented for Year 2 primary students and Form 1 students next year.

On Malaysian English Language Teaching Association president Associate Professor Dr S. Ganakumaran, who was reported to have said the syllabus used to teach English in schools was outdated, he said that syllabus which was talked about might have been the old syllabus.

A RECENT StarEducation letter under the heading “Why are books in BM?” has raised some concerns and the Education Ministry would like to clarify the matter.

The Ministry acknowledges that the switch in the medium of instruction for the teaching of Mathematics and Science from English to Bahasa Malaysia (better known by its Malay acronym PPSMI), was to be done in stages and completed by 2012.

However, the Ministry had recently come up with the MBMMBI (Memartabatkan Bahasa Malaysia dan Memperkukuhkan Penguasaan Bahasa Inggeris), a policy which aims to uphold Bahasa Malaysia and strengthen the English Language.

It is also to ensure that the national primary school curriculum is in line with the Government Transformation Programme.

An evaluation was recently carried out following which improvements were made to the KBSR (Kurikulum Bersepadu Sekolah Rendah), which in turn resulted in the development of KSSR (Kurikulum Standard Sekolah Rendah).

KSSR will replace KBSR in stages starting with Year One students this year (2011). The KSSR will comply with the ministry’s recent policies including the MBMMBI.

This means the development of all subjects under the KSSR other than English must be in Bahasa Malaysia since the latter is the medium of instruction.

The Ministry has carried out relevant training to expose primary school teachers to successfully and meaningfully impart the improved contents, required skills and expected values inherent in the KSSR.

The initiatives carried out are aimed at informing teachers, parents and other associated stakeholders of the changes which are taking place in the field of education, particularly primary school education in Malaysia.

The implementation of KSSR is a progressive and bold initiative by the Ministry to address the shortcomings in the KBSR. It is also aimed at preparing the future generation for the challenges ahead.

THE Standard Curriculum for Primary Schools (KSSR) will be introduced next year, starting with Year One pupils.

It will be more holistic and less examination-oriented for pupils.

The KSSR will replace the existing primary school integrated curriculum (KBSR), which was first introduced in 1983, and subsequently reviewed in 2003.

The Education Ministry’s Curriculum Development Division director Datuk Dr Julaihi Bujang said the ministry saw the need to make changes to meet the challenges of the future.

Changes have been made in areas related to curriculum, assessment, teacher training, monitoring as well as teaching and learning approaches.

“This means the curriculum is pupil-centred with an emphasis on fun learning, critical and creative thinking, reasoning skills, communication and ICT literacy.

“We have benchmarked against the United Kingdom, Singapore, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Australia and Scandinavian countries,” he said.

Dr Julaihi said the new curriculum is based on six key areas — communication, spiritual attitude and values, humanitarianism, literacy in science and technology, physical and personal development — to produce holistic individuals.

The division’s deputy director Dr Lee Boon Hua explained that the focus will be on the mastery of literacy, numeracy and reasoning skills.

“This even includes penmanship as we have found some pupils have not been taught how to hold a pen or pencil properly, which in turn affects their writing skills,” he added.

In addition, there will be an emphasis on creativity and innovation, entrepreneurship, and information and communication technology.

“Learning will be made more fun and the approaches used include it being project and activity-based and problem-based learning, with ICT components introduced as early as Year One,” he said.

Giving an example, he said in KBSR, the objective was stated in terms of learning outcomes but in KSSR, it was the content standards which pupils need to achieve.

“This means that by Year Six English, pupils must be able to write a formal letter using appropriate language while in Year Four, it would be to know the format, structure and salutation,” he explained.

In Level One (Years One to Three) at the primary level for national and vernacular schools, the core modules are Bahasa Malaysia, English, Chinese, Tamil, Mathematics, Physical Education, Health Education as well as Islamic Studies or Moral Education.

The elective modules will be Arabic, Chinese for national schools, Tamil for national schools, Iban and Kadazan – Dusun. Pupils will also be exposed to Science and Technology, and Arts in the form of Visual Arts and Music.

In Level Two (Years Four to Six), the subjects will be based on five modules — communication, science and technology, physical and aesthetics, spiritual attitude and values and humanitarianism.

Dr Lee said a pilot project involving 500 schools was carried out throughout the country.

“We received positive feedback from the pupils, teachers and parents involved.

“These include that the standards set for each subject are able to be implemented and achievable, and flexibility in terms of pupils’ needs, school location and availability of teachers,” he explained.

In terms of teacher training, Dr Lee said this was based on the cascade model, meaning that master trainers for all subjects have been trained, and will in turn train teachers in the respective states.

New textbooks for Year One have been distributed to the schools, he added.

Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said earlier this year that the transformation of the school curriculum based on creativity and innovation will make learning fun and no longer examination-oriented.

He said the transformation is significant as it involves the curriculum, approaches to teaching and learning as well as values.

Dr Lee said the transformation includes revamping the secondary school curriculum. “Work on this has started and the new curriculum will be implemented in 2014,” he said.

Ministry of Education (MOE) would like to refer to an article by Najiah Najib, published in Malay Mail paper dated 19 April 2010 on the issue of –– “THUMBS-UP FOR NEW SCHOOLS CURRICULUM, BUT…”.

First and foremost, the MOE welcomes and appreciates the comments by the writer with regard to the new school curriculum and the issue which surround it. The national school curriculum is designed based on the principles inherent in the National Philosophy of Education with the aim towards further developing the potential of individuals in a holistic and integrated manner, so as to produce individuals who are intellectually, spiritually, emotionally and physically balanced and harmonious, based on a firm belief in and devotion to God. Towards this aim, relevent initiatives are in place to produce Malaysian citizens who are knowledgeable and competent, who possess high moral standards and who are responsible and capable of acheiving high Stage of personal well-being as well being able to contribute to the harmony and betterment of the family, the society and the nation at large.

The Standards-based Primary School Curriculum (KSSR in Bahasa Malaysia) will be implemented in stages starting in 2011 to replace the Integrated Primary School Curriculum (KBSR in Bahasa Malaysia). The implementation of KSSR brings about certain changes to the curriculum content and practices in the primary school system. The remodelling of curriculum content through the introduction of new subjects, emphases on sound pedagogical approaches and holistic assessment menthods are among the initiatives outlined ini KSSR.

In line with the NKRA for the Ministry, the curriculum for Stage I primary schooling emphasizes the mastery of the basic 3Rs, reasoning skills, basic ICT, the development of socio-emotional, spritual, physical, cognitive, attitudes and values. The discipline of knowledge is categorized into 3 main modules; the core basic module the core thematic module and the elective module. The core basic module contains 6 subject which are Bahasa Malaysia, English, Chinese or Tamil (only for Vernacular Schools), Mathematics, Islamic Education (for Muslim pupils) or Moral Education (for non-muslim pupils) and Physical Education. The core thematic module contains 3 subjects which are Arts and Me, World of Science and Technology and Malaysia Negaraku. The Elective Module contains language subjects such as Chinese, Tamil, Arabic, Iban, Kadazandusun or Semai which schools can choose to offer.

At stage II Primary school, the curriculum emphasizes strengthening and applying the 3Rs, basic ICT skills, development of socio-emotional, spiritual, physical, cognitive, attitudes and values. Content knowledge is presented through 9 subjects. Core subjects such as Bahasa Malaysia, English, Chinese and Tamil (for vernacular schools), Mathematic, Science, Islamic Education, Moral Education, Physical Education and Health Education are retained. However, some subject are redesigned either by combining two or more disciplines of knowledge into one subject. Subject such as Living Skills, Civics and Citizenship Education and Local Studies are replaced by new subjects. The new subjects are Design and Technology / Information and Communication Technology, Visual Arts and Music and History / Malaysia Negaraku.

The KSSR requires teachers to apply classroom strategies which promote creative and critical thinking and innovation among pupils. Teachers need to carry out teaching and learning activities which are student-centred, provide opportunities for pupils to explore and test their hypotheses and ideas, solve problem and most importantly provide a fun learning environment. Classroom practices such as inquiry-based, problem-based and project-based are some recommended strategies which promote critical and creative thinking and innovation among pupils. Teachers need to be sensitive to students’ learning needs and be able to indentify learning styles which suits them best.

The KSSR proposes the implementation of schools-based assessments to guage students’ potentials and the effectiveness of the teaching and learning process in the classroom. This formative assessment will inform teachers on suitable remedial or enhancement treatments for pupils. It will also help teachers indentify and plan salient and effective classroom strategies.